Minnesota passes the nation's first direct primary election law, which applies to candidates running for city and county offices in counties with a population of 200,000 or more (at the time, only Hennepin County qualifies). Wisconsin would be the first state to make statewide direct primaries the law in 1903; while Minnesota had drafted similar legislation applicable to city and county offices in 1901, the state's officers and U.S. senators would not be elected by direct primary until 1912.